Trying to improve sketching the female physique

NSFW

I'd remove the dick pic and then put out a casting.  Many models out there would love to be sketched.

Not sure what the membership is like down in Oz but if you are happy to work on-line, the world is your oyster, providing people like your work of course.

There is a group on here for life-drawers and iirc models.

Worth joining, more specific advice likely.

You might possibly find the article (see articles menu) on life class modelling to point models or potential models at.

Melbourne's a nice place, I suspect there are plenty of artists models around, they just don't shout about it. And classes.

GSC4X haha good advice ;) just trying to ‘snaz’ up my portfolio haha appreciate the reply

MidgePhoto thanks mate! I’ll look into it

Life art online:

Croquis Cafe (vimeo.com)

Line of Action (line-of-action.com)

SketchDaily Reference Site

Search the web for Glen Vilppu

Phone apps:

Camera Lucida

SketchAR

Books:

Kimon Nicolaides - The Natural Way to Draw

Robert Beverly Hale - Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters

Robert Beverly Hale - Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters

I ask local photographic models to sit for me when they're not busy.  The deal is they can cancel anytime. I pay life art rates, lunch and travel and they get to keep the sketches and any watercolours.  If they get a late photographic booking and cancel, which happens rarely, I draw something else.  If you can get a few artists together to join you and split the fee it becomes very affordable.  All but one of the models I have approached said yes and everyone has become a friend and have come back time and time again.  Works quite well.  Good luck.

I don't know what the Covid rules are where you live (we're currently on full Lock Down here in the U.K.), but is there an art college (or club) near you offering life drawing evening classes? I've attended a few of those in the past, and they've been quite useful (and reasonably priced). (I started out life as an art student).

I would love a model to sit for me, indeed, I would secretly like a few that I could use at will, like those great artists (far richer than me), gained access to in the past.  

I work from photos mostly. It's not ideal, because the lighting can create a few problems that are at odds with how our eyes actually see, like shadows reducing down to a solid black, or highlights going brilliant white with a loss of detail. As long as you're aware of the camera's problems though, you can get around most of this. There are advantages too however, in that the photographed model's lines never alter (she doesn't even breath!), she can hold even a jumping pose, forever, and you can get up ery close to the difficult bits, in a way that would probably creep out a real person.

Is photography something you might like to get into?

Clothed life drawing could be achieved by simply asking friends and family.

Then, of course, you may be able to find that "really good friend", if you're lucky. I've been married to my "really good friend" for over 40 years, but, even though she was once an art student herself, she's a bit bored with all this arty stuff now.   

In the absence of life drawing classes during covid I would look on line for tutorials even live life drawing sessions have been available. Not all are good though.

You are already better than a lot of PP "artists" so you must be doing something right. Working from photography is a whapping great manhole just waiting for you to walk into it. Try to extract the information that you want from it rather than copy it. You don't want your drawing to proclaim "I was copied from a photograph".

I think you will learn more about drawing by using live, clothed models than you will from using photographs. Especially someone else's photographs.

Your standard seems variable but this, in my opinion, is your best.

Edited by art65